Post-Apocolyptic Universe
by Ukebox
Summary: This is an ongoing story focused on the life of a lonely gem living ona mountain after all human life seems to be wiped out. Told in a comedic first person with a numerous refferences of self-depricatung humor. If you enjoy, please favorite and tell me what you think in the reviews.
1. Chapter 1 and 2

It's been longer than I can remember since I've seen a human on Earth. I may be the closest thing we have to a human and I'm not even close. Even if I was, i don't imagine you'd be too impressed. I'm chewed up and used by what humans once called "life." It's sad when you compare me to what we used to be. What's sadder is that gems don't even see me as one of them either. I can't be. I'm cracked. I should be just... gone... but I'm not. Not sure why but I'm. You may be asking yourself "Where did my beloved fellow humans go? How is this crossbreed communicate with me in what has to be the distant future? Is this guy reading my mind?" All your questions will be answered in due time, but for now, you're missing the most important question, and it's a simple one. "Who?" Don't worry, I don't blame you for overlooking the question. The answer is as simple as the inquisition. It's a name. Nell.

Chapter 1

I was at my home resting at the peak of Mt Garnet overlooking ground zero. Not many visitors of the sentient type. Mostly the shattered and corrupt. They hunt at night but so do I. Everyday, I start with a stroll down to the crater to collect samples of scorched rock and debris hoping to derive some sort of solution to all of the problems the giant floating rock has. The rock we call Earth. I scavenge for food in the afternoon -apparently my stomach is quite human. Some days, I find nothing but today I found some untouched coconuts. Damn, coconut trees are strong as hell. Since the rapture, they seemed to be the one thing that didn't seem to be bothered. Anyway, I snag some coconuts and head back up with my big rock, some Trinitite, and three ripe coconuts. God, the trail back up always seems the longest. Two decades of climbing up and down this lone mountain and I still dread the ascent each time. Sorry, you are the only person I've been able to complain to anybody in a long while. I digress. About half-way up, I take a load off and enjoy a snack on today's harvest. Hey, I earned it. It's not every day that you are able to find a movable yet large enough piece of radioactive glass. I sit overlooking the crater. You can still see the ocean off in the distance. It's so gorgeous this time of day. The clouds of gem dust shimmer on the horizon making a bit of a redish-blue haze by the setting sun. You may think me crazy or sick to think the shattered dust of my fallen kin is pretty as its refracts light through it's decomposer body. Well I am. I can admit it. I have been alone on this damn mountain for 18 and half- wait what's that.

-now stop. You know from reading the first part that isn't the right question.

-go on

I drip to my stomach and prone. I have a spectrum armory collected at the overlook cave, time to put it to use early today. I pull my rifle from my gem when you'd think my belly button should be. Peering through the scope, i can make out a tall girl, at least 5"10' walking towards the base of the mountain. Shattered don't walk like that. They are more beast than gem now. And corrupted look a lot less... alive than that. She was beautiful. But then again -2 decades alone- I'll let you form your own opinion. She had long brown hair, pulled back into a braid, and mocha skin. She wore a black tank top and white shorts. What?! She has black converse! Where the hell did she find black converse?!

Alas, my focus on stylish footwear was distracted when a much deader looking person seem to be running up behind her. Corrupted.

It's getting close. Aim. Take the shot! I squeeze of symbolic trigger and thin beam of light shines through the creature as the crash of the sonic boom struggles the keep up. The corrupted dissolves before it hits the ground. I must look really cool...

After waiting for hours in the same spot, she finally makes it to the top and it dawns on me... I should have walked her up here. 2 decades does a number of the manners too, doesn't it.

She looks at me silently and she approaches.

"Coconut?" I offer her

"What" she replies

"Coconut" i repeat, "you know, the vegetable or something. Those brown hair things in the trees. You can have one"

"What do i do with that?" she asks

"Well, for starters you can eat it" i take the opportunity to be a smart ass, " after you're done, you can make a sporting hat or go bowling. In some cultures, the coconut is worshipped as the deity of sarcasm. Of course you only worship it sarcastically. very confusing religion, i wouldn't bother."

"Do you just bite it" she seems to ignore most of what i said.

"Here, i will crack it open for you. You can drink the milk inside, and you can eat the meat around the walls" I say as I cut open the nut.

She frantically eats most of what i gave her. She seemed to be quite hungry or in a hurry. Or both.

A silence fell between us as we walked up to my cavern. Night fell before we reached the summit and as we entered my cave, she hesitated.

"It's safe, home girl" i assured her.

"Nelly" she says

"What?" I inquire.

She looks at me, "Call me Nelly."

Chapter 2

Yes i know! I haven't said why this girl is important. Calm down, it's called build up. It wouldn't be much of a story if i just skipped to the end. Besides, its more of when happened in between that made such a big deal about Miss Nelly.

Where was I?

Oh yes, i was on the other side of the fourth wall.

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Nelly's voice echoed up behind me in the early morning. I clear my throat.

"For your information, I'm recording my finding to better aid my research!"

"You are probably crazy, but I don't remember the last time someone bothered to save my life so i guess I owe you," she proclaims "which begs the question, what do I owe you?"

-stop that! It's not what you think!

"No ma'am, you owe me nothing." i replied honestly "I savesaved you for just the sole fact that if i hadn't, i would never be able test my research with another conscious being." i continued... Less honestly.

You know why i saved her. 2 decades. But she doesn't need to know how human I really am yet. In fact, it's time I learn more about her than divulge about myself.

"Where are you coming from?" i asked

"No where." she says.

-Oh you're going to play it like that huh?

Me: where you headed?

Nelly: somewhere

Me: To do what?

Nelly: Something important

Me: How important

Nelly: Enough for me to walk there

Me: fair enough... Are you human?

Nelly: Aren't you?

Me: You know I'm not

Nelly: Do i?

Me: Are you meeting someone?

Nelly: Apparently, I already met someone

Me: Do you know what happened here?

Nelly: Don't you?

Me: I think I hate you

Nelly: You aren't the first person to say that. Shall we get started?

Me: Started on what?

Nelly: The research testing you mentioned before...

Foiled!

" I saw you had trinitite and some rock samples. Have you had a chance to examine them?" she says.

"Only a glance but nothing extensive," i tell her.

"Well I could be a second eye. What are you looking for?" she asks.

My so-called "cave" is more like a office than a cave. It's not exactly the secret lair i use to suit up into my alter ego to fight crime in the night. No, it's more like a room. I have several lights from lanterns and luminescent stones littered throughout the area. I have 3 large table with way more chairs than i need. The tables have scattered papers and loose graphite wedges sprawled around various rocks from the crater debris. I also have 6 or so trunks, I lost count. All are full of dumb old rocks labeled with a letter and number. Each trunk is assigned a letter but I haven't a clue what letter i'm up to. I tossed out the system on the first year. If a rock yields no significant result, its tossed down the other side of the mountain. I also have 1 book shelf with 3 books on it. One being "The Unabridged history of Beach City" because I like to remember what humans used to talk like. One was my ledger to keep track of my stored rocks. And the last book was simply titled "The Universe." Enough boring useless, uninteresting and completely unrelated information, back to rocks!

I grab the radioactive glass from atop one of my tables. I had set it there last night next to my half-eaten coconut. Hmm i don't remember if the coconut was bluish on the inside... Oh well it is now. "I want to what exactly caused the crater down there" i started.

" Well we know what caused the crater, that's no mystery" Nelly interjects.

"No, well yes, well... Here. See the light discolorations in the glass surface? This was the only piece that. Cracked this small. It's no bigger than a foot long and 6 inches across. I think stepped here when she caught it" I finished.

"Well than would explain the shape and size but wouldn't she have sunk into the glass while it was still hot?" she responded

I stared at her with enthusiasm

"Not if pressure rose much faster than temperature. But it would have to be an ungodly amount of increasing pressure."

Okay enough play, it's time for a history lesson. Shortly after the Crystal Gems fought off Homeworld for the god-knows-how-many-th time, they decided Earth just wasn't worth it. So they sent their worst, not to fight, but to live. Prisoners, war criminals, insane, and who knows what else was rained down onto Earth but the millions. Beasts and demons in gem form now called Earth home. Bad right? Well i guess it wasn't bad enough because Homeworld still wanted to make sure we got the message. They constantly send orbital strikes down to the surface killing dozens and even hundreds with each strike. Finally, they raise one last middle finger to us and launched an experimental orbital strike down on Earth. Now this isn't your grandma's orbital strike. It was a total world destruction, extinction level, holy-jesus-big orbital strike. A giant burning mass that glowed as bright as nothing you've seen before. Just when we all put bags on our heads and confessed to every deity we have ever heard of (this is why i call it the Rapture), something happened. One of the most powerful protectors of Earth stepped to the plate and laid down their life for ours. The ball of catastrophic death seemed to be pushed back into the sky. Just as terrifying as it came, it left! Everything was fine!... But it wasn't. Some of the finest humans I knew no longer stood next to me. In their stead were piles of ash. The same thing happened to every human on earth. Just what homeworld wanted...

What they didn't want was to play a game of death ball tennis between us and their home planet. Unfortunately for them, it was our serve and they received. They received harder than a drunk night at a gay bar. Homeworld is now an asteroid belt. I know you may wonder how one of the Crystal gems nailed a shot from over millions of light years away. Well I'm sorry but it's a long story that isn't relevant right now. I will give you a hint. It uses the same technology that the old warp pads used.

Anyway, lets go over what is important:

-Lot of bad gems

\- I have no friends

-Your entire race was eliminated... Or were they?

I think it is entirely possible that some humans that remained in a tight enough seal, like a bunker, could have survived. Thats theory one. Theory two is a little bit crazier and defeats the purpose of asking people if they are human... Ready? It may be possible that the physical bodies of the exposed humans were completely annihilated but they developed a spectral essence and retained life in dormant gems. We don't know the nature of the weapon used against Earth from all those years ago (120-something years.) The one group of people that did know ended up being on the wrong end of it and also got completely annihilated. The reason this second theory exists is that there was no such thing as Corrupted gems before the Rapture occurred. They are a product of some sort of gem manipulation that was not completed. Corrupted gems are faded in color from regular gems. They also don't contain just one color, most of 3 or more colors and they sure aren't pretty. The point is, if the weapon was intended to affect the gem composition then made, just maybe, we can see exactly how it reacted in contact with humans and other animal life. Which brings us back to the glass...

"If the discoloration stays on the surface on all the trinitite then I can use the lab instruments to learn so much more about the variation in energy across the contacted surface and possible identify its composition!" i exclaimed.

"I know. It took you how long to figure that out? I have even been here a day!" she said rudely

"Thats rude" i said masculinely.

"Stop being a girl" Nelly said without any empirical evidence.


	2. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

So some science stuff happened. Nothing too special, I took the sample down to the abandoned nearby town. There is a university laboratory there used to study marine life and pathology. I commandeered the equipment years about but the school generator could only power the equipment for a finite amount of time. I decided early on that i would only use that equipment when I had a promising lead. One problem arises though, the town is full of corrupted, shattered and probably some rogue gems that survived exposure. It won't be a walk in the park to get there.

"If i can get to the university, I bet I can reverse engineer a frequency that can clean up corruption in gems and maybe take a huge step in bringing back human," I address the rude female traveling companion.

"Great good luck," says my former female traveling companion.

"Wait, don't you want to come?" I inquire, " You'd be witnessing a scientific breakthrough and possibly the revival of human life!"

"Look, no offense but you're nuts. Humans are extinct. Gone. Kaput. Forget about them. Thanks for saving my life but you are pursuing a lost cause," her voice catches, "i have a lost cause of my own to look after"

She starts her descent down the other side of my mountain.

I open my mouth to say something but what would i say? _Wait, i don't want to save humanity by myself!_ She'd think me even crazier. I don't want to be a sole survivor anymore but I think my biggest fear is that she's right. Even if i find the exact frequency used to destroy this planet's sentient life, how do i make fix that? They are all ash. My friends, their loved ones, children and families and even family pets. All of them were reduced to ash before my eyes. How on earth do I undo that? Even if i got all the ash from each individual person, there isn't a way to just reconstruct a person from dust. These thoughts are not novel to me. I have asked them before. Since the first day and daily till today. My answer is always inconclusive. Most times it sounded something like _Well there is only one way to be sure._ When do you call it quits, though? Your way of life is a memory, your home is destroyed, the people you loved are gone and nobody is there to share the burden. Where do you draw the line and say that it's time to move on?

 _Never..._

I remember them. Their faces are as real as my own. I can't let them down. If there was a way to bring them back, then I would never forgive myself if i didn't find it. I'm going to that university.


	3. Chapter 4

I hate this town.

I hate the smell of it. It's smells like nobody has cleaned it for 20 years. Worse more is the state of it. It's destroyed. Large parts of the town have been reclaimed by nature. It was already a small town with small buildings inhabited by a small population, but now it seems smaller. There seems to be no life. It seems to be the decomposed carcass of a town. It seems lifeless. Well don't trust your eyes hear. Behind every corner is a shattered waiting to kill you. Under every stone is a corrupted waiting to kill. Hell, in ever tumbleweed that blows by is another dumb looking "something" waiting to give you a hug. That was a test to see if you are still paying attention. In actuality, it wants to kill you. My point is, the place isn't much for a summer home like it used to be. Luckily, I don't have to go too far into it. The university is actually kind of close to the ocean. Oh you wonderful DUU, how you love convenience. I remember watching the students run out of class straight into the water. It was fine to leave your surfboard on the shore because nobody would take it. Sometimes people would borrow the boards by the ocean for a couple hours while the owners were in school. Thats just the kind of town it was.

Times have certainly changed. There three boards out that but that's all that remains the same. Even as I walk the wood boards that lead to the town's edge, splinters, holes and snapped pieces are all that remains. Just enough for a careful tip toe down memory lane.

I lose myself in thought. Mainly on the wonderfully sexy beach girls of summers long passed. To think such a spectacular piece of technology such as a bikini could be lost in history. I know! I will reinvent them when the humans return! New, _Bikinis._ Patent pending. Genius.

Just before I become fixated on the rest of the summer body, i find myself at the footstep of the university. This is where it gets difficult. I was able to waltz through town unbothered but the "wildlife" tends to seek shelter during the day. Any number of them could be in this building. First, i have to make my way down to the basement to turn on the generators. Second i head back up to the 2nd floor to make it to the physics lab. I will use the electron microscope to analyze the patterns of discoloration of my glass. Finally, i'll stay the night there to derive a formula to return human life and be amazing and awesome. Easy enough, first, to the basement.

Walking down the hallway to the basement door, I am reminded of reasons to press on. Valedictorians, volleyball stars, and the prom royalty. It's sad to say but i never knew them. One of the only people around to remember them and they remain forgotten. What's sadder is that i never wanted to know them. They seemed so cookie cutter. They weren't so special to me. They were successful because of their social skills. I wasn't social. Never was. I only served at 3 or 5 am when nobody was around. When people were around, i only stared at them from my window, silently watching to hopefully ascertain or discover some way or opportunity to include myself with them. I never could, so why would I want to know these gods of communication if they never bothered to communicate with me.

As i walked down the stairs of to the basement, I remember why I am here. It's for the men and women like me. These were the people that never had a chance in the first place to live. I think of the boy or girl that promised themselves that they would share their affection to a special someone "tomorrow." I hear those beautiful voices singing in the security of their bedroom and hopelessly trying to build themselves to be able to sing in front of a crowd. I flood my mind with these people that never had their chance because the world ended the next day. That's bull. I intend to fix it.

A crash shatters through the concrete just in front of me. A rhino like creature shreds the steps of the stairs below and cracked the cinderblocks as it charges me.

I leap forward and pull out my rifle and aim at the creature's rear.

"For the nerds!"

I squeeze the trigger to a hold as to charge the shot fully. I release.

The monster squeals louder than anything you have ever heard as it dies and fades to a wisp of light.

The blood from my ears trickle down the side of my face and down my neck. Even a minute afterwards, I can't hear a thing, but i certainly feel something. A vibration? No. too soft. A rumble? Still too soft. What hell is that?...

A stampede...


	4. Chapter 5

Oh mother fathering sons of sisters... I'm fucked

There has to be ever demon and hell beast in town all encroaching on the room. Each with their own unique way of tearing me to pieces. There is no way I can shoot them all. Even in the best day of my life, I'd be lucky to take out 5 shattered at once. You saw how close that first little bastard came to killing me! I need to run but there is only one entrance and thats where the baddies are coming from. I could hide but im fairly certain at least half of them would be able to smell me and the other half would see me with some sort of murder-vision. I can't fight them, i can't hide or run from them and im fairly certain diplomacy is off the table...I am just dead. Thats all there is too it. I'm going to die.

Wait but wait and wait some more. The air ducts. Normally i wouldnt trust airducts since nobody has maintained them in 20 year but at this moment, it's my only chance.

I open on the ceiling. It's well over 20 feet off the ground so I sure hope it doesn't collapse with me in it. I crawl in. Shimmy up about 30 foot toward the first floor and wait with my rifle.

I listen. The rumble slows to a hault below me. Non-uniform breathing fills the surrounding air. After a few seconds, they start searching. I can hear them tear and claw in the distance. After an couple minutes, the breathing starts to dissipate and the tearing stops. I still hear some so I wait longer. 1 hour. 2 hours. Time passes slowly when you stare at an empty A/C duct waiting to kill or be killed.

Eventually, it's passed time to nut up or shut up. I crawl back down towards the breath of my hunters. I peak through the grate and see that a handfull of them remain still. 3 beastlike shattered and one nasty looking ghoul of a corrupted. I can hardly make out any detaik but lets just say there are tenticals, wings and very large teeth. A cocktail of death of which I wish not to sip. Even if I kill them all, I'd likely notify everyone else in town like last time. And frankly, I not to fond of my new neighbors.

I will have to distract my pursuers with something the humans called a decoy. I just so happen to be an expert on the matter. First. I climb up to the 2nd floor and the far East end. I can either shoot three shots and or I shoot another load ass shattered. I then shimmy back down the air ducts to the basement and turn on the generator. Then I climb back up to the 2nd floor, lock the and save man kind. It's fool proof!

As I make my way to the 2nd floor to execute my plan, I hum a soft little spy music to myself. Ever hero needs a theme song. i peak out the 2nd floor vent. Nobody. I crawl out and ready my rifle. The second I pull the trigger for that third shot, i have to be gone. Ready. Steady...

- _Wack!-_

"What the hell..." I say as i open my eyes as if from a long slumber, " what happened?"

The stuff is gone! Including the glass to save man kind! Who the hell would do this? Who could do this? I know that the shattered and corrupted all want me dead but they dont have the foresight to take the glass too. Who even knows that I'm here and that I have the peice? And what does my chest hurt so badly!?

I look down to see a nail driven through my side with a bloody note attatched.

 _"Sorry, I need this"_ It read.

My eyes tighten to say the following name "Nelly."


	5. Chapter 6

I can't believe I saved her life. Even more, i can't believe she spared mine. I would've killed me. She must like me. I wonder if she likes nerds. Wow, I must be really lonely.

Well first order of business, take the nail out of my side. This isn't some furnishing nail, no, this is a giant sized crucifixion nail. Where did she even get one of these? It's nothing you get at you local grocery store. This is

-for lack of better wording- a big-ass nail. She didn't want me leaving in a hurry but I don't think it's too deep into the flooring. I try to pull my body off as skin and organs flush with blood.

"Holy Ghost Busters," I yell " that's gonna stay puft"

Okay, so she made a permanent furnishing to the room. So where is this room? Looks to be in a house, maybe even still in town. The place is dusty. Family photos look abandoned. Doesn't even look like much comes into the house. It's boarded up. The windows and doors seem to be barricaded. I can barely make out some morning light from the separation in the wood.

As I look around for some sort of tool or sign of life, I still wiggle in hopes to loosen the nail off the board. I know what you must be thinking, you must be crazy, gems don't bleed. Well you caught me. I'm of a similar species to St. Steven Universe. I bleed and I have to eat but I do have a gem with some nifty perks. For one, I can pull out a mallet from my armory. Problem is, it's not a hammer. The key difference is the prying head used to pull out nails. So I guess i will have to make do.

The plan is not a pretty one: I slam the mallet perpendicular to the direction of the nail until it loosens a floor panel. Round one: FIGHT.

After about 3 strikes, I believe I passed out from pain. After I woke a second time, I tried again, only to repeat the process 4 times to set me free. I have lost a lot of blood by now. My vision is blurred, my motor function is limited. I can lose a hell of a lot more blood than a human can without dying. That being said, I might die still.

I scavenge the house for bandages or cloth big enough for the job. I found a beautiful white table cloth with ornate stitches and a cozy setup of plates and cups. It'd be a crime to ruin something so quaint and brilliant. So I did. Shattered porcelain plates not litter the floor and the once white table cloth has been repurposed as "life-saving mechanism." Where most people come from, it's called something to put over than gaping hole in your side. Meh, syntax.

There is a refrigerator but i doubt it works. Best bet would be the pantry if I want food. I happen to have remarkable regeneration skills after consuming a meal of appropriate size. I never bothered to narrow it down to a formula or else I'd tell you. A general rule would be to eat until you can't anymore. However, that option isn't available.

I'll be honest, I didn't expect a full pantry but maybe a bite or two or even a nibble. Not such luck.

"Damn you, Nelly!" I say to myself "I could've saved the world by now"

"That's not very likely" Nelly's voice comes from the window "But I guess you'll never know"

Thats when I noticed and important detail, the windows. They were boarded from the outside. They were boarded up as if to keep somebody in. I get the feeling that the somebody as previously mentioned is me.

" Why are you out there?" I muster the strength to speak, "Also, on an unrelated note, are you attracted to nerds?"

"I'm out here because I have things to do. A species to condemn, more accurately. You're in there because it wasn't fair to kill you. This is mercy" she says coldly.

I wait a few seconds

" You didn't answer my second question" I finally speak up, " And why do you want to keep the humans from coming back? They were such beautiful creatures of hope."

 _"_ I never said anything about humans." Nelly ignores the first statement "it's the gems I want to eradicate."

"Don't you think you could've been more specific when you said 'accurately.' You lead me to believe you are purposefully making sure humans don't return." I say sarcastically " Also you didn't answer my question still. Do you think nerds are sexy?"

"You moron. There are entire colonies of humans living underground waiting for the opportunity to thrive again. I AM ONE OF THEM" Nelly starts to lose her composure.

We both pause for a time.

" So is that a no?" I ask with sarcastic politeness.

"YOU ARE NOT ATTRACTIVE IN ANYWAY. I SMACKED YOU WITH A BRICK, DRAGGED YOU TO THIS HOUSE, AND NAILED YOU TO THE FLOOR!" she pauses to calm herself. She leans in almost kissing the wood barricades "Now I'll leave you to die"

I think about what she has said a long while before speaking. " So what you're saying is...

I have a chance?"


	6. Chapter 7

Jeez, I don't know what her problem was. She knows I'm injured, she should go easier on me. I mean honestly, there is a nail about 2 inches thick going straight through me. Have some sympathy.

I don't remember the last time I bled this much. I don't know if I will remember this. Now there is a puddle of "me" that ruined my good shirt. I don't care about these shorts, though.

None the less, I need free and patch myself up before i lose consciousness. I've never had any confirmation for it but i have a terrible feeling that if i lose consciousness, I'll die in my sleep. I can't have that happen. I have to die by the hands of the terminator, while floating on a sea of vanilla pudding while Amy Lee sings to me... And so it shall be.

Alright think time. Not just about movies and music, but think of a way to get loose. Dumb idea: cut the rest of way to the edge of my side so i can slide right off. I would obviously pass out from pain or blood loss before I made it halfway. I can't cut the nail without tools. I can pull it out with my bare hands either. Even if got one of many guns from my armory, I would inadvertently end my own life with a round rather than save it. This only one solution.

Due to the slight wedge of the nail the bit sticking out of me is about a half inch wide than what's inside me. If I can balls up, I can slowly and painfully pull myself off. God dammit. This is going to suck. I've known this fact for a few minutes not but i've been trying to avoid it at the cost of valuable time. It also seems that I'm going for broke because there is a definite possibility that this nail can get a nasty grip on my much needed stuffing. Let's not think about it. No choice. Just do it

Just do it...

JUST DO IT!

"Niiiiiikeeeeee"

I pull my me-soaked body off the floor and loose the iron grip my formidable foe had on me. I slowly stand in the middle of the room and stare as last light shines through a crack in the window, a hole in me, and onto a bloody metal nail in the center of the room.

"Go screw yourself."

-click-

-BOOM-

The wooden cage of a house that once confined me now bares a hole the size of a "Bad Day" in it with little on me on one side of it. In my hands is my trusty sidekick responsible for the recent redecoration. His name is Bad Day. A shotgun of sorts. The sort of shotgun you want to have as a friend. Particularly because shotguns don't typically shoots friends, if they had any.

I drop my Bad Day as it simply fades to a shimmer of light before it touches the ground.

Now to begin my march. This march will take me to the beach. The beach will fix me up nicely.

15 minutes of walking goes by and I feel no closer than I did before. Little has changed though. The sun still clutches the horizon for its last breath of the day, the shore line shimmers on the surface of sand and water. The shadows creep across the earth around me. In fact the only things that have changed is my feeling. I feel lighter. But my feet sink just a little. Like the planet is tasting me before it swallows me. It lightly hugged my toes as though to tease me. I float and sink at the same time. I sink a little into each step and the world is spinning me.

I want to sleep. I want to give up, but I can't. I have someone waiting for me at the beach. She can keep me from sinking. I can see her just a couple feet away. She's so beautiful.

I grab her by the hips and lead her toward the shore line. She's wants me to swim with her.

" I'm dying" i say

She just stares back as if to say _not yet._

Blindly, I let her lead me away. She leaded me to the ocean as it deepens. I lean her back for a dip and lean in for a kiss. The waves come. At first, there are small waves that we easily swim over. It's not long before he comes. He wants to separate us. I see him now. He is the biggest wave you have ever seen. Dark and swelling as if to be dead and living in the same instance. He grows in size and nearness as I brace myself for impact.

My beautiful companion reminds my hand that I'm not alone. He is near enough now that we both stand in defiance. The swell seems to consume us in its bowels. I feel the cool rush of his breath push from behind me as I speed back up his esophagus.

As I near my exit, the light shines through the beast I crawl out of. I see the last second of the day fade to night as the sea levels and I fall to my knees with my beloved. The blood soaks us both now and paints the stale ocean around us. I stare at my reflexion in the water.

My face is so different than I remember. I look.. More alive. I look deeper and behind my naturally mirror emerge the teeth of shadows. Now, there is only light.


	7. Chapter 8

It's so bright now. It's like staring the sun down for a millennium. It not pure white light though. The light is shined through a green filter. This light is the lightest and whitest green you can possible imagine. What a hideous color. Although, it's not unfamiliar. This color has defined be for my entire lifetime. I was born with it- if you can call it a birth. This is the last color I wanted to see.

Oh now I get it:

I'm in hell.

Fan-frickin-tastic.

I'm dead and I'm in hell.

Wait, but where are all the other assholes like me? Did i get a private cell in hell? Do they deliver room service?

Wait wait. This could be worse than I thought.

As my eyes adjust to the light I see floating reflective sphere. As the evidence would suggest, I am not in hell. I am regenerating inside my crystal.

Great...

I have to regenerate. Worse still, I have to reach into a floating orb of "me" and dig out my favorite bits. It isn't really limbs and eyeballs, it's more like concepts and ideas. The idea of what I will be is lodged in a ball of dark green goop. To better understand this, imagine a goodie grab-bag with a bunch of delicious treats inside. Thats what gets me through this most disturbing of trials. The only difference would be that this grab bag might actually grab back.

As disturbing as it is, yes, the ball can grab back. Since the ball is not just a symbol, it is literally my thoughts and ideas of what I am. The idea of control, that's the illusion. Yes, I get to pick a few thing, but those concepts are actually want to be picked. This is why I hate regeneration. So enough delay. Let's get this over with.

I roll up my non-existent sleeves and reach into the syrup. I try not to look into it's depths. Its probably 10 times my size and god knows what could be in there. Hmm seems a little bit bigger than last time...

They used to tell me than everyone's experience is different during regeneration. I don't bother with follow up questions very often so I'm not sure how different it is. I guess it doesn't much matter.

Regardless, i was able to find some of my ideal descriptors. Some confidence: most times makes me a bit taller. A little creativity which for some reason gives me brown hair, go figure. Of course a touch of uninhibited thought, which happens to make me look a bit like a jerk. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, I grab a few much final touches and call it a body. Now to walk out the door. I think that bit is symbolic as well, but who cares.

My eyes see only a flash and they soon adjust to the soft glow of the morning sun. I am laid at the shore with the ocean kissing my body awake. When I sit up I see the shimmer of light across the coast. It's simply amazing how i was able to walk through a beast-infested town, swim into shark-infested waters, and still wake in the morning the same beast-infested town without a scratch. What's even more amazing is that I still have not seen a single beast since I was at the university. But then again I have yet to turn around.

Just thinking about it makes my hair stand on end. I really don't want to do it but I know i have to turn around. "Maybe they aren't there" I think to myself. God dammit, there is no way I can be so lucky. I start to twist my body to the right as slowly as I can bare. Wish me luck.

"Fuck"


End file.
